Community interaction using mobile communication devices

ABSTRACT

Techniques are provided for delivering content to mobile communication devices related to interactions of members with a user community. The method involves detecting a communication session involving a mobile communication device; determining one or more context parameters associated with the communication session; and delivering content related to the context parameters to one or more mobile communication devices. Data is stored at a central computing entity that indicates association or membership of a plurality of mobile communication device users in a user community. The central computing entity detects when an action is taken by one mobile device user that is a member of the user community, and sends a notification to members of the social circle based on the detected action. These techniques allow individuals who are involved in a user community to maintain their interaction with the user community using their mobile communication devices.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/420,011 filed on Mar. 14, 2012, which is a divisional of U.S.Non-Provisional application Ser. No. 11/970,709, filed Jan. 8, 2008 andissued as U.S. Pat. No. 8,160,532 on Apr. 17, 2012, which claimspriority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/883,910, filed Jan. 8,2007 and to U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/950,890, filed Jul. 20,2007. The entirety of each of these applications is incorporated hereinby reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed to mobile communication devices andservices, and more particularly to delivery content and information tomobile communication device users who are members of user communities.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Mobile communication devices, e.g. cellular phones, are becoming moredata centric and less voice centric and the modern mobile lifestyle ischanging rapidly. Indeed, in many countries, the mobile phone is the“primary screen” in the household instead of a laptop or desktopcomputer.

Social communities have become ways for individuals to keep up with thelatest trends in music, fashion, media, etc. Many web sites have beencreated to help people share information with others that have similarinterests. It is desirable to leverage this interest in sharinginformation in order to target the marketing products and services.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Briefly, techniques are provided for delivering content to mobilecommunication device users and also for coordinating actions of mobilecommunication device users that are members of a user community, alsocalled a social community or social circle. In one embodiment, a methodis provided that involves detecting a communication session involving amobile communication device user; determining one or more contextparameters associated with the communication session; and deliveringcontent related to the context parameters to one or more mobilecommunication devices.

In another embodiment, a method is provided for coordinating actions ofmobile communication device users that are members in a user community.Data is stored at a central computing entity (that may comprise a singlecomputing device or a group of distributed computers, such as servercomputers) that indicates association or membership of a plurality ofmobile communication device users in a user community. The centralcomputing entity detects when an action is taken by one mobile deviceuser that is a member of the user community, which action is related tothe user community. The central computing device sends a notification tomembers of the user community based on the detected action. Users mayalso share, via their mobile devices, information related to items ofinterest discovered while browsing, from a personal computer, web sitesof various service providers.

According to another embodiment, a method is providing for sharinginformation among a plurality of mobile communication device users. Themethod comprises storing data associated with a user's selection of anitem of interest while the user views information at a web site of avendor of goods or services, wherein said storing comprises storing thedata in association with an identifier for said user; and sending anotification to mobile communication device users that are members of auser community to which said user is a member, wherein said notificationcontains information concerning the item of interest selected by theuser.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a high level block diagram showing a mobile communicationsystem that is enhanced according to the techniques of the inventiondescribed herein to deliver concurrent applications to mobilecommunication devices.

FIG. 2 is a high level data flow diagram showing a concurrencyapplication server that communications with a library component in amobile device according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a mobile communication useful in accordancewith the embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the software architecture of theconcurrency application system according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating data flow for a context-based mediacontent delivery method according to an embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating use of the concurrencyapplication server in delivering to mobile devices content related to asocial community according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart illustrating delivery of social community relatedcontent to mobile devices according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating how the concurrency applicationserver coordinates actions of users with service providers and usercommunities according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIGS. 9 and 10 are flow charts illustrating examples of functions forcoordinating actions of users with service providers and usercommunities depicted in FIG. 8.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring first to FIGS. 1 and 2, the system and method for deliveringdigital content to mobile devices will be described. The mobilecommunication devices are shown at reference numeral 10(1) to 10(N) andmay be cellular phone or other wireless communication devices that havesufficient display and user interface capability beyond simple telephonyfunctions. Such devices are currently available and they havecapabilities including mobile web browsing, mobile instant messaging andrelated capabilities.

As is known in the art, mobile communication devices 10(1)-10(N) achievea wireless radio communication link via a radio network 20 to basestation control centers (BSCs) 30 and the BSCs 30 are in turn connectedto a mobile switching center (MSC) 40 that is part of a voice network50. Also in the voice network 50 is a home location register (HLR) 60and a multimedia messaging service center/short message service center(MMSC/SMSC) 70 and a voicemail server 80. The MMSC/SMSC 70 handlesprocessing of data messages to/from a mobile communication device. Theradio network 20 is also connected to a data or packet network 90 by aGSM gateway serving node (GGSN)/packet data serving node (PDSN)/wirelessinternet access router 85. Alternatively, multimodal mobile handsets mayconnect to the IP network via any other available radio technology likeWiFi (IEEE 802.11), WiMax (IEEE 802.16) etc. The data network 90 mayinclude content servers 100(1), 100(2) and 100(3) that are accessiblevia the WWW for digital content.

A mobile content system is provided that comprises a concurrencyapplication server (CAS) 200 and a small client library 300 also calleda concurrency application plug-in that resides in the mobile devices10(1) to 10(N). The CAS 200 interfaces with equipment in the voicenetwork 50 and equipment in the data network 90, e.g., the Internet. Amobile device 10(i) equipped with the concurrency application plug-in issaid to be a concurrency-enabled mobile device. Thus, any currentlyavailable or hereinafter developed mobile device having theaforementioned user interface capabilities may be madeconcurrency-enabled by installing the client library 300 or otherwiseconfigured with the functionality of the client library 300 as describedherein. For example, the client library functionality may made part ofthe operating system of a mobile device. The functions of the CAS 200may be performed by a (central) computing entity that is a singlecomputing device or a group of distributed server computers.

The CAS 200 comprises an interface function (described hereinafter) thatdetects incoming calls or communication sessions that may be originatefrom an MSC or MMSC/SMSC. Depending on which concurrent applications themobile device user has subscribed, the CAS 200 activates a mobileapplication. The CAS 200 comprises a plurality of mobile applications210(1) to 210(N) that can be running concurrently in cooperation with aclient library 300 on any number of mobile devices 10. Examples ofmobile applications include a voice calling application 210(1), voicemail application 210(2), chatting application 210(3) and autobrowsingapplication 210(4). Additional mobile applications are describedhereinafter. The mobile applications 210(1) to 210(N) may interface withthird party applications 110(1) to 110(N) which may include, forexample, a mobile radio application 110(1) and a live news application110(N), as well as a mobile gaming application 120(1). The CAS 200comprises concurrent application plug-ins 215(1) to 215(M) to enableinteraction between the CAS applications and the third partyapplications.

A concurrent mobile application may be initiated by the CAS 200 asexplained above or by the mobile device as well. For example, the clientlibrary 300 on the mobile device may activate a mobile application basedon an incoming call or certain incoming message notifications. Thus, themobile device or the CAS 200 may detect the need for concurrency andactivate a mobile application concurrent with an already activatedmobile application.

The functions of the CAS 200, such as the content delivery functionsdescribed herein, may be embodied by one or more computer programinstructions that, when executed by computer processor, cause thecomputer processor to perform the functions that are described herein.

FIG. 3 illustrates a block diagram of a mobile device 10 according toone embodiment. The mobile device 10 comprises a radio transmitter 11, aradio receiver 12, a modem (baseband signal processor) 13,microprocessor 14, memory 15 and a variety of user interface componentssuch as a display 16, speaker 17, microphone 18 and user interfacebuttons 19. The functions of many of the components are well known inthe art and are therefore not described in detail herein. The clientlibrary 300 is installed in the memory 15. In addition to the clientlibrary 300, the memory 15 stores other software programs that areexecuted by the microprocessor 14 to provide the various mobile devicefunctions to the user and coordinate cooperation with the CAS 200. Themobile device 10 need have only one instance each of a radio transmitter11 and a radio receiver 12 to provide for multiple concurrent mobileapplications to the device user. No modification to the hardware of amobile device is necessary to achieve the concurrent mobile applicationfunctionality described herein. Moreover, no modification of theover-the-air communication protocol (between a mobile device and theradio network 20) is necessary to provide the concurrent applicationfunctionality described herein.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of a software architecture for theconcurrency application system functionality. As mentioned above, at theclient layer there is a client library (concurrency application plug-inenabler) 300 that resides in the mobile device 10 that can activate anapplication while others are already active on the mobile device 10 andcan switch an active application between the foregoing and background,either in response to a user control or automatically.

At an intermediate abstraction layer there is a SS7/IN interfacefunction 220 and a client interface function 230. The SS7/IN interfacefunction 220 detects call context information from a mobile device call.Call context parameter information includes, but is not limited to,information such as the mobile device ID, telephone number of the mobiledevice, the number called by the mobile device, etc., obtained from theMSC and location of the mobile device or other information obtained fromor via the GGSN/PDSN/WirelessRouter 85. In addition, the clientinterface function 230 receives any special data from the mobile device10 and delivers concurrency application information or content to themobile device 10 in the appropriate format depending on the capabilitiesof the mobile device. There is also a concurrent behavior logic function240 that maintains a profile data file for each mobile device 10 as tothe types of concurrent applications to be provided to a mobile deviceand parameters associated with the concurrent application, whichapplications are active or available on a particular mobile device, etc.Next, there are a context triggers function 250 and a smart contentagents function 260. The context trigger function 250 determines whattype of concurrent applications should be invoked for a mobile devicebased on the context of the current activity of the mobile device (typeof call made, time of day of the call, location of the mobile devicewhen a call is made, calling number of the call, duration of the call inprogress, etc.). Other context triggers may be location based, such asthe absolute location of a mobile device user as well as the proximityof one mobile device user to another mobile device user. The locationinformation can be absolute GPS-based or relative RFID-based,technologies for which are known in the art and used or will be used inmobile communication networks and services. The smart content agentsfunction 260 activates one or more concurrent applications to retrievecertain content relevant to the context of a mobile device call, undercontrol of the context trigger function 250. The CAS fetches the contentfrom various sources in the internet that is of relevance to thepresentation trigger. The different content information downloaded fromthe internet can be classified into the following broad segments ortypes.

-   -   1. Content information that is of relevance to the mobile device        user. For example, this could be simplistic information like the        number of email messages pending for the mobile device user,        number of unread messages in the various message boards that the        mobile device user participates in, or the release of new media        content (full track music, ringback tones, ring tones, etc) that        is of relevance to the mobile device user.    -   2. Content information that is of relevance to the mobile device        user and a concerned remote party. The remote party may be a        caller, a called party if the presentation was triggered by a        phone call, or the sender/recipient of a message (text or        multimedia message). For example, this could be, in addition to        the content described in the previous item, information from        public information sharing sites such as Yahoo Answers,        Wikipedia etc., on topics that are of mutual interest to the        mobile device user and the remote party.    -   3. Content information that is of relevance to the mobile device        user in the context of his/her social networks/communities. This        information is relevant to all the social networks that the        mobile device user may be participating in at the same time.

The appropriate one or more CAS applications (CAS App-1 to CAS App-n)210(1) to 210(N) are called upon by the context trigger and smartcontent agents functions 250 and 260. In addition, there is a plug-inapplication abstraction function 270 that interfaces the concurrentbehavior logic function 240 with one or more concurrency applicationplug-ins 215(1) to 215(M).

FIG. 5 illustrates data flow for a call context based content deliveryapplication according to one embodiment of the invention. As indicatedat 400, the mobile device user places a call that is processed by theMSC and the CAS 200 obtains call context information for the call fromthe MSC (e.g., called number, calling number, time of day of call,etc.). For example, one trigger may be mobile device user initiatedwhereby a mobile device user manually commands the client plug-in onhis/her mobile device to contact the CAS 200 in order to fetch certaincontent. Another trigger may be a social community event reflecting somechange or information distribution event in the social community such asnew content uploaded to a social community website, changes inmembership of the social community, social events such as meetings,birthdays, parties, etc. One example of a social community is describedhereinafter in connection with the description of FIG. 6. These callcontext information triggers are obtained via the IN interface orsimilar interfaces as may be defined to obtain call content informationin the operator's network of the CAS 200. If location is to be a contexttrigger as well, the location of the mobile device at the time the callis made is obtained at 410 via the interface of the CAS to the datanetwork via the GGSN/PDSN/WirelessRouter 85. The CAS 200 uses the callcontext triggers to retrieve content from various content servers (inthe data network) at 420. At 430, the CAS then delivers the retrievedcontent to the mobile device that made the call, or to another mobiledevice (the destination of the call or some other mobile device) viaeither the MSC and through the radio network or via theGGSN/PDSN/WirelessRouter 85 and through the radio network. The data flowdiagram shown in FIG. 5 is applicable to any call context where contentmay be delivered to the mobile device user based on the context of thecall. The call context may be used to automatically retrieve usefulcontent (via the WWW for example) and push it to the mobile device user.In the case where the content pushed to the user involves a WWW site ofan advertiser or other third party, the CAS 200 also allows the user tobrowse the site while engaged in the voice call.

It should be understood that the context-based content delivery methodsaccording to embodiments of the present invention are generallyapplicable to any type of communication session context, not just voicecalls. Thus, the term “communication session” is introduced to refer toany type of communication activity that a mobile communication device iscapable of. As such, context parameters associated with a communicationsession of a mobile communication device may further include, but arenot limited to, type of mobile gaming application being engaged in orplayed by mobile communication device user, type of media (audio orvideo) being streamed to the mobile communication device, type of website being browsed by the mobile communication device, etc.

Moreover, the content that is delivered to a mobile communication devicebased on the context parameters of the communication session mayinclude, but is not limited to: text, video, audio, gaming functions,web site content (such as from one or more advertisers), web site linksthat can be selected by a mobile communication device user, etc. Thus,the term “content” as used herein may include text, video, audio,digital images, website links, website content, electronic coupons, etc.

Turning to FIG. 6, according to one example, the mobile content deliverysystem allows users or members of a social community to also interactwith each other with their mobile devices. That is, members of thesocial community are assumed to have a mobile communication device thatis capable of interacting with the CAS as described above. A socialcommunity, as that term is used herein, is a group of individuals thatshare a common interest of any type. Examples of social communities arelocal community organizations such as little league baseballorganization (e.g., McLean Youth Baseball) that has its own web site todisseminate information to participants (members) and potentialparticipants, as well as social communities that has developed becauseof the Internet such as MySpace™ (www.myspace.com), YouTube(www.youtube.com), and others. This latter type of on-line socialcommunity has developed as a result of users learning to use the WorldWide Web to create, maintain grow social networks and has become verypopular recently. A number of social networking/community sites allowpeople to create and maintain their social interactions with others andbe introduced to other members of the site who have similarinterests/tastes to each other. Members of these web sites can alsoupload a wide variety of content, such as text, photos, videos, audio,etc. The terms social community, user community and social circle areused interchangeably herein.

As shown in FIG. 6, the CAS connects with a social community web siteshown at typically via the Internet 90. Individuals become members orusers of the social community web site when they establish accountidentifiers (user names and passwords) with the web site. Members of thesocial community web use their account identifiers to sign in to thewebsite and receive a wide variety of information from other members.When establishing their accounts with the web site, users can alsoindicate their mobile device telephone number and indicate that they canaccept communications related to the web site at their mobile devices.The members may not even be aware of the existence of the CAS since thecontent delivery mechanism can appear completely transparent to themobile device users. In addition, mobile device users can interact withthe social community web site via their mobile phones by browsing pagesof the web site, updating information, uploading information, sendingmessages to other members, etc. In FIG. 6, members1-membersN areidentified by reference numerals 150(1) to 150(N). The mobile devices ofcommunity members are shown at reference numerals 10(1) to 10(N).

The CAS 200 delivers content to members' mobile devices based ontriggering criteria. The trigger criteria may be user initiated, i.e. amobile device user manually triggers the CAS 200 to fetch informationfor delivery to it and/or other mobile device users (a mobile device ofanother member). The CAS 200 may retrieve and forward data in responseto call and messaging related triggers, events associated with a socialcommunity web site such as new content uploaded to the social communityweb site, membership changes to the social community, social eventchanges (birthdays, parties, meetings), etc. The content that isdelivered to the mobile devices may be content relevant to a particularmember, content from other members involved in the triggering criteria,or content involving all members in the social community.

FIG. 7 illustrates the flow of the mobile social community contentdelivery method 400 according to one embodiment. At 410, the CAS detectsor responds to a trigger from a mobile device or from a social communityweb site. A member may initiate a triggering function from his/hermobile device or from a PC connection to the social community web sitethat necessitates content delivery to other members' mobile devices. At420, the CAS 200 fetches the content (depending on the trigger) from thesocial community web site, from data storage at the CAS (assuming theCAS already has locally stored the relevant content), or from anotherweb site(s) that stores the data relevant to the trigger. When thetrigger occurs at a social community web site, the social community website may send the relevant content to the CAS 200. At 430, the CAS 200is informed from the trigger or from a special instruction from thesocial community web site as to the mobile devices (by way of mobiledevice identifiers—telephone numbers) to which the content should bedelivered. At 440, the CAS 200 sends the content to the mobile devices.

Example scenarios are described below.

Content Presentation at the End of a Voice Call or Message Trigger

Trigger: Mobile device user just finished/terminated a voice call or hasjust received/sent a message to another mobile device user.

-   -   1. Content relevant to just the mobile device user could be the        following information.        -   a. Unread email messages pending for the mobile device user            to act upon across all the mail accounts (yahoo.com,            gmail.com, etc.) the mobile device user may have.        -   b. Relevant information from the public on-line message            boards and peer answer groups that are of interest to the            user. This could be for example, the number of new questions            on a topic in the Yahoo Answers message board for which the            mobile device user is an expert or the number of answers            received by the mobile device user for questions s/he may            have posted on the message boards.        -   c. New digital media content (music, videos, podcasts,            movies, etc.) of interest to the user. New or updated            information that is available to the mobile device user from            the various digital media content portals like iTunes, Yahoo            Music etc.        -   d. Information about the other party on a voice call or at            the other end of a message exchange with the mobile            communication device user. This could be the public known            profiles and interests the remote party may have published            about himself/herself, taken from one or more websites to            which the remote party has uploaded such information about            himself/herself.    -   2. Content relevant to both the participants in the triggering        activity (phone call, message, etc.).        -   a. Number of topics of mutual interest to both the parties            on the various message boards the two parties may            individually participate in. The CAS would sort through such            information to determine the common interests. This could            for instance include information regarding the            topics/questions posted by one of the parties and answered            by the other.        -   b. Digital Media content available on the digital media            portals that are of interest to both the parties in the            call. Again, the CAS would analyze the information to            determine the content that matches common interests of the            parties.        -   c. Social networks that the two parties may be interested in            becoming a part of based on the learned or expressed            interests of the two parties.    -   3. Content relevant to the social communities the two parties        belong to.        -   a. Social community related content information including            upcoming events and messages that are of relevance in the            social communities in which the two parties participate.            Again, the CAS would fetch this content from the source web            sites associated with the social communities.

Adding a New Member/Creating a New Social Community

Trigger: End of voice call or messaging activity or social networkevent.

Upon being invoked by the appropriate trigger the client on the mobiledevice member launches to connect the mobile user to the appropriatesocial networks of interest to the user. While viewing the list of thesocial communities, the mobile device member/user can select the phonenumber of the remote party in the voice call or another mobile deviceuser who is a non-member into one of the social communities to invitethat mobile device user to become a member of that social community.Alternatively, the mobile device member/user may create a new socialcommunity with the remote party in the voice call or another mobiledevice user. Any changes to in the social community triggerspresentation to all members of the community of content that providesbasic information on the change, e.g., a new member.

Social Community Events

Trigger: Community event information added or changed.

Upon an event in the social community, members' mobile devices are sentcontent relevant to the event. The event may be availability of newinformation related to the social community. For example, when a newmedia content (digital photograph, audio, video) is uploaded by a memberin the community, a trigger is sent by the social community web site tothe CAS to send to the mobile devices of all the other members in thecommunity www link to a web site page that allows the members to view orlisten to the media content that was just uploaded from the mobiledevices (or from a PC). Similarly, when a new member joins the socialcommunity or a current member resigns from the social community, atrigger may be sent by the social community web site to the CAS totransmit a notice to the mobile devices of the members notifying them ofthe membership change. Another example of a social community event iswhen a member plans an event such as a party, meeting, etc. In thiscase, the social community web site sends a trigger to the CAS, togetherwith data concerning the planned event, for transmission to the mobiledevices of the other members. Alternatively, the transmitted content maycomprise a www link to a web site page that a mobile device user canselect to be presented with the details of the planned event. Thus, inthis scenario, the trigger is the additions or changes made to socialcommunity event information, or the details about an event planned by amember of the social community and a member has uploaded details aboutthe event to the social community web site.

New Appointment/Event in the Social Community

Trigger: Community event (e.g., a new party is being planned and detailshave been uploaded by a member).

When a member plans an event, such as a party, meeting, etc., the socialcommunity web site sends a trigger to the CAS, together with dataconcerning the planned event, for transmission to the mobile devices ofthe other members. Alternatively, the transmitted content may comprise aWWW link to a web site page that a mobile device user can select to bepresented with the details of the party.

Social Community Messages

Trigger: New message from one of the members in the social community.

A message from one of the members in the social community is supplied tothe CAS by the social community web site and the CAS sends the messageto the mobile devices of all the members of the community to indicatesome activity in the community.

Turning to FIG. 8, another example of how the CAS 200 may deliverinformation and notifications from multiple services to a community ofmobile device users. The CAS 200 will form a relationship with multipleservice providers shown at reference numerals 170(1) through 170(N) andoffer these services to the mobile device users. Examples of serviceproviders are the iTunes™ media porthole, Yahoo Music, Online musicstores such as Amazon.com, etc. In this sense, the CAS 200 serves as acentral portal through which mobile device users can make purchases forgoods and/or services across multiple vendors, shown as serviceproviders 170(1) 170(N). Accordingly, the CAS 200 enables mobile deviceusers to subscribe to multiple services as well as to receive relevantalerts from their “social circle” of friends. These so-called “socialcircles” may be created by explicit user designations or configurationsas well as implicitly learned by the CAS 200 through knowledge ofactivities of the users. The former type of “social circle” is referredto as a user-created social circle and the latter type referred to as aCAS-derived social circle. FIG. 8 illustrates, as an example, auser-created social circle comprises mobile device users 10(1) to 10(5)and a CAS-derived social circle comprises mobile device users 10(3)through 10(9). The social circles may or may not have overlap.

The CAS 200 delivers notifications/alerts to users thru multipledelivery channels. One of the delivery channels is via the clientplug-in on a user's mobile communication device. Alternatively, anotification/alert may be delivered to a user's email account that auser accesses via a PC device, several of which are shown at 180(1) to180(N) shown in FIG. 8.

FIG. 8 also illustrates a web site 205 that may be maintained by thesame entity that maintains the CAS 200. The web site 205 is labeled“Did.You.See.It”. Relationships are established between the web site 205and the various service providers 170(1)-170(N) such that the web site205 can track when a user flags an item of interest on a web site of oneof the service providers while the user is browsing web sites from apersonal computer. The service providers may be web-based vendors ofgoods or services, for example. The functions of the web site 205 areexplained in further detail hereinafter in conjunction with FIG. 10.

A variety of actions are possible with each notification/alert. Theseactions are not necessarily related to one of the service providers170(1) to 170(N). For example, when a user gives a positive rating to aparticular media asset (e.g., song) on one the website of a particularservice provider, he/she may have an opportunity to buy a full trackdownload of the song on his/her mobile device using a completelydifferent service provider through the CAS 200. The CAS 200 coordinatesthese services to present a cohesive view to the mobile device user.

The following are specific, but not limiting, examples.

Example 1

User A purchases some media content M on his/her mobile device.Moreover, User A is a member of one or more social circles either usercreated or CAS-derived. The CAS 200 can send an alert to all of themembers in one of user A's social circles indicating that user A hasacquired the rights to the media content M. The CAS may optionally applyfiltering criteria to select a subset of the social circle based on thepersonal preferences of the members of the social circle. The socialcircle members can be provided an opportunity to do any number ofactivities based on the alert received. Examples of such activities are:

-   -   1. Purchase, via the CAS, the same media content M from the same        service provider that user A made the purchase or from any other        service provider that the CAS may have an established        relationship.    -   2. Purchase related media content M1 that is related in some way        to the media content M. For example, if the media content M is a        ringtone:        -   a. The CAS may find the corresponding full song to enable            the user to download the full track music corresponding to            media content M from a service provider with which the CAS            has a relationship.        -   b. The CAS may find the corresponding album art for media            content M and enable the user to download it from a service            provider.        -   c. Provide an ability to buy any other media content            associated with the same album or artist associated with the            media content M.    -   3. Send a request to user A to enable another user to preview        the media content M on their own PC device or mobile device. The        CAS 200 brokers the transaction and provide a digital rights        management (DRM) free version of the sample to the other users        in the community.    -   4. Enable users in the social circle to request association of        the media content M with the users persona on user A's mobile        web-space. For example, if the content M is a ringtone, the        media content M is rendered on user A's device every time the        current user (e.g., user B) communicates with user A either via        a voice call or text message. As another example, if the media        content M is a ringback tone, then the ringback tone is played        back to the particular user (e.g., user C) whenever user C makes        an outgoing voice call to user A.

Example 2

User A uses his/her PC or mobile device to rate/review a particularsong. The rating could be made on a mobile portal or on a PC-basedportal such as iTunes™, with which the CAS has a relationship. The CASsends a notification or alert to the members of the social circle ofwhich user A is a member to advise those users about user A's recentrating. A user in that social circle who is buying a new ringback tonefor user A may use this alert/knowledge to assist him/her in purchasingthe appropriate media content. Alternatively, a user in that socialcircle who is interesting in buying a gift for user A may choose contentbased on this notification information. Thus, the CAS provides a linkbetween user's rating of media content (from the user's phone or PC) toalert members of that user's social circle.

Turning to FIG. 9, a flow chart is now described for a process 500 thatmay be implemented to perform the functions described in connection withFIG. 8. At 510, the CAS 200 registers relationships with serviceproviders. This is a continuous effort that is performed each time theCAS 200 establishes a relationship with a new service provider. At 520,the CAS 200 processes subscriptions of mobile device users to servicesfrom one or more of the service providers. The CAS 200 manages useraccount and related information so that when the CAS 200 makes apurchase from a service provider on behalf of a user, the CAS 200supplies appropriate user account information to the service providerwho collects payment from the user. At 530, the CAS 200 receivesinformation from users to establish user-created social circles. Forexample, a user could manually create a group of people who have acommon interest in a band or artist. In this example, the socialmessaging and interactions between these users is the essence of thisartist or band related social circle. At 540, the CAS builds CAS-derivedsocial circles by monitoring activities of users. For example, a dynamicsocial circle may be created from the group of people you call or getcalls from often. This group could be named “my top phone friends” as anexample. Similarly, a user may create a list of his/her “favorite”people to send messages as another type of social circle.

At 550, the CAS 200 detects an action taken by a user that is related tothat user's membership in a social circle. Examples of these actions aredescribed above. At 560, the CAS 200 delivers a notification/alert toall (or a subset of) members of that user's social circle depending onthe nature of the triggering user action. At 570, the CAS coordinatesthe actions made by a user in response to the delivered notification oralert, such as facilitating the user's purchase of media content. Forexample, a mobile device user that receives a notification or alert maysend a request to the CAS 200 to receive additional information relatedto the alert and/or to purchase a particular digital media content orother product or service.

Thus, the process shown in FIG. 9 may be summarized as storing datarepresenting a relationship with an entity that is a vendor of goods orservices; storing data indicating association of a plurality of mobilecommunication device users in a user community; detecting an action by amobile communication device user with said entity, wherein said actionis related to the user community; and sending a notification to mobilecommunication device users that are members of the user community basedon said action.

Reference is now to FIG. 10, in conjunction with FIG. 8, for anexplanation of yet another example of how a mobile device user may sharecontent related data with other mobile device user's in his/her socialcircle, etc. In the process 600 of FIG. 7, at 610, a relationship isestablished between the “Did.You.See.It” web site 205 and one or more ofthe service providers 180(1)-180(N). At 620, a mobile user can establishan account on the web site 205 and the CAS 200 makes an associationbetween the user's mobile account and the user's account on the web site205. At 630, the user, using a personal computer, browses web sites ofvarious service providers and selects (tags) certain media or othercontent to be added to a list maintained in association with anidentifier of the user, e.g., the user's account on the web site 205.For example, the user may see a video on YouTube, a song on iTunes, abook on Amazon.com, etc., and want to have that item selected (tagged)so that the user can later share his/her interest in that item with theuser's mobile social circle of friends. The item that is flagged couldbe a product or service of interest to the user that is being marketedby a service provider. At 630, the user may browse web sites of variousservice provides from the user's mobile device, rather than from apersonal computer. At 640, the item flagged by the user is added to theuser's account on the web site 205. At 650, the CAS 200 communicateswith the web site 205 or otherwise synchronizes its databases with theweb site 205 to capture and update the user's list of tagged items andgenerates a version of that list that is suitable for the user's mobiledevice. At 660, the CAS 200 transmits the list of items to the user'smobile device. At 670, the mobile device user can send a notification tothe mobile devices for members of a social circle of which the user is amember, thereby sharing the list of items with his/her social circle,etc., using the techniques described above in connection with FIG. 9. At670, the CAS 200 may send notifications (user community broadcast) tothe mobile devices of users who are part of that user community, ratherthan the mobile device user sending those notifications.

In a variation to the configuration described above in connection withFIG. 10, the user may have installed on his/her personal computersoftware that logs pointers or tags to certain media content selected oridentified by the user when browsing certain web sites of serviceproviders. The software on the user's personal computer will upload tothe CAS 200 information associated with media content selected by a userduring a user's browsing session. An upload may occur after the usercloses out a browsing session on one of a service provider's website.The CAS 200 will then transmit a mobile version of a list of those mediacontent items to the user's mobile device, allowing for display on theuser's mobile device as well as sharing with his/her social circle,etc., as described above.

The process shown in FIG. 10 may be summarized as storing dataassociated with a user's selection of an item of interest while the userviews information at a web site of a vendor of goods or services,wherein said storing comprises storing the data in association with anidentifier for said user; and sending a notification to mobilecommunication device users that are members of a user community to whichsaid user is a member, wherein said notification contains informationconcerning the item of interest selected by the user.

Song Trivia Related Mobile User Communities

To keep a user's attention focused on a product, such as music,collecting and providing trivia related to a song may be a useful. Theinterest that a user holds for a song and the related information may berelatively short-lived. Users tend to get tired of a song and asubscription very easily. However, users appreciate interestinginformation about a song or other media content. To encourage users toreturn to a particular service, e.g., a music download service, songtrivia may be used on a periodic or occasional basis to maintain auser's interests in returning to the service. It should be understoodthat trivia is not related to song trivia. For example, movies andvideos may also have associated trivia that may be useful as a marketingtechnique in much the same way as song related trivia.

The CAS 200 may assemble trivia for a song and present it to mobilecommunication device users in different contexts. The CAS 200 will serveas a platform for users to read trivia and add trivia.

Song-related trivia may comprise names of the artists, name(s) of thelyricist, the specialty and finer aspects of the composition, thecomposer, the writer's underlying intended theme of the song, thecircumstances under which the song was written and recorded, any otherinteresting information

There are various sources from which trivia can be collected, including,but not limited to:

-   -   Musicians, critics, and music researchers—for trivia about the        finer aspects of the composition.    -   Composers, lyricists, and singers—for trivia specific to the        composition and any other interesting information surrounding        the composition.    -   Content editors—for trivia from user blogs.    -   Mobile communication device users—for user generated trivia that        users can add to the database of trivia maintained by the CAS        200.

A content editor may be involved in editing the trivia received frommobile communication device users to ensure the authenticity of theinformation.

The CAS 200 maintains a record of user-added trivia and can present thisinformation in several ways. For example, if a user belongs to a mobilemusic social community, the CAS 200 may transmit the user-added triviato every member of that social community as a “community-wise broadcast”feature. The members in the community are informed that User-A belongingto the same community has added a trivia for a Song-S. The contentpresented will also have an option for other community member mobiledevice users to add a trivia for a song and/or to purchase and downloadthe song.

The CAS 200 may implement a “track-a-trivia” feature. This feature willworks together with the “community-wise broadcast” feature. The CAS 200may store an indication or tag of mobile device users who respond to thebroadcasted trivia. For example, the CAS 200 may tag these users as“curious users” and form a “trivia group” from the “curious users”. Thistechnique may be useful in tracking when the broadcasted notification issent to mobile device users that are not part of a user community, butfor which the CAS 200 desires to draw new users into that usercommunity. In this way, the CAS 200 will receive responses from mobiledevice users that are not part of the user community and store anidentifier of those mobile device users not part of the community thatresponded to the notification in order to form group of “curious users.”

The CAS 200 may implement an “ask-for-trivia” feature. When there arenew songs added into the song database that the CAS 200 accesses, if theCAS 200 needs trivia for new songs, the CAS 200 sends alerts to all themembers in the “trivia group” asking the users to send trivia for one ormore new songs in the database. Users can choose to respond to thesealerts with a trivia.

Song Search Cookie

Content discovery by searching is a fairly common occurrence. The CAS200 may use a “cookie” that stores search criteria that a user entersthrough the browser application on his/her mobile communication device.The CAS 200 stores the cookie. Over a period of time, the CAS 200accumulates the different search strings that a user has entered.Whenever there is an update to the database of media content accessibleby the CAS 200, the CAS 200 can run the search criteria onto the updateddatabase and if there are any matching songs, those can be pushed to themobile device user associated with the search criteria by, for example,a port directed SMS message.

A mobile device user can register for a function of the CAS 200 wherebythe CAS automatically sends to the mobile device user songs that arewithin a particular genre whenever that there is an update to thedatabase in that genre. That is, when there is an update to the databaseof media content associated with a specific genre, the CAS 200 canintelligently “push” the new media content for that genre to (only)those subscribers who have searched for this genre. This techniqueincreases the likelihood of sales to mobile device users when comparedto pushing an alert about the database update to all mobile deviceusers. This in turn reduces marketing costs because an alert can be sentto fewer users, but in a more targeted fashion.

When the CAS 200 identifies that a set of subscribers are repeatedlysearching for the same set of songs, the CAS 200 may transmit a messagerecommending to the users a particular search criteria. The CAS 200 maysend a message to certain mobile device users presenting a list of songsthat are displayed as “Your Search Based Songs”.

User Communities Based on Search Criteria

The CAS 200 may store data for user communities based on users' searchcriteria for media content, such as songs. As a result, the CAS 200 canform a network of users who search for songs within a genre/sub-genre.

The CAS 200 maintains the history of search criteria that a user enters.The CAS 200 groups users searching for songs within a genre into acommunity. The CAS 200 may group users further based on what the searchcriteria is and based on the actions performed by the users. Forexample, if a user acts to purchase a song, the CAS 200 may include theuser into a sub-genre-specific community.

If the CAS 200 returns no results for a user's search criteria, the CAS200 may present a page to the mobile device user where the user canindicate his/her preference to receive an RSS feed for that searchcriteria. The CAS 200 maintains the list of users who are interested inRSS feeds and sends the songs that satisfy the search criteria when thesongs become available.

Community Bulletin

The CAS 200 has access to the set of all parties that call, text oremail to a specific mobile device user subscriber (either from NEF logsor from last-10 callers history). Assuming that the parties that call,text or email a mobile device user are also subscribed mobile deviceusers, the CAS 200 can examine this data in order to match thepreferences of the calling parties with the preferences of thesubscriber. For example, the search criteria (that defines a mobiledevice user's interests) may be used to match the preferences of the twomobile device users. If the search criteria does not match, the CAS 200can send information on songs and other interests of each of two mobiledevice users.

Mobile device users may configure their service with the CAS 200 suchthat with every media content purchase made by the user, the CAS 200broadcasts a notification to every mobile device user in that user'scommunity. The mobile device user that made the purchase can also chooseto add a comment specific to the media content, and the CAS 200 willinclude the comment along with the media asset purchase notification tothe members of the community.

Mobile device users may also choose to have a specific graphicalpresentation or “skin” when communications are made by the CAS to userswithin a particular community. If a user is part of more than one usercommunity, the CAS 200 may allow a user to customize the skin used foreach user community. Then, when a notification is sent to mobilecommunication devices for members of a particular user community, thenotification may comprise a graphical presentation that is unique to theparticular user community. This user community specific graphicalpresentation concept may be used in connection with any one of theprocesses described herein.

The CAS 200 may receive requests from a mobile device user to select aparticular user community and allow the user to view all the updates inthat particular community. For example, if the user has receivedbroadcast messages from other users and recommendations from otherusers, the user view is able to view the messages that originate withina specific community.

The device and methods described herein may be embodied in otherspecific forms without departing from the spirit or essentialcharacteristics thereof. The foregoing embodiments are therefore to beconsidered in all respects illustrative and not meant to be limiting.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for content delivery for a user of amobile communication device having a mobile account, comprising:establishing a first website and a relationship between the firstwebsite and one or more service providers, the service providersproviding one or more second websites; establishing a website accountfor the user on the first website; associating the website account ofthe user with mobile account of the mobile communication device; addingcontent of the second websites tagged by the user when browsing thesecond websites to a list associated with the website account on thefirst website; transmitting the list to the mobile communication deviceto be presented to the user; sending an alert to members of one or moresocial circles maintained by the first website where the user's websiteaccount is a member for indicating the tagged content of the secondwebsites to the members of one or more social circles.
 2. The methodaccording to claim 1, wherein the members of one or more social circlesare all members of the one or more social circles maintained by thefirst website where the user's website account is a member.
 3. Themethod according to claim 1, wherein the members of one or more socialcircles are a subset of member of all members of the one or more socialcircles after being applied with a filter using criteria provided by theuser.
 4. The method according to claim 1, further including: performingan action related to the tagged content of the second websites for amember of the one or more social circles in response to the alert. 5.The method according to claim 4, wherein the tagged content is an objectfor sale on the second websites and the action is a purchase of theobject for sale on the second websites.
 6. The method according to claim4, wherein the tagged content is a rating of an object for sale on thesecond websites and the action is a purchase of the object for sale onthe second websites.
 7. The method according to claim 1, whereintransmitting the list to the mobile communication device to be presentedto the user further includes: synchronizing a server database with anaccount database on the first website to determine the list associatedwith the website account on the first website; generating a version ofthe list suitable to be presented on the mobile communication device;and transmitting the suitable version of the list to the mobilecommunication device.
 8. The method according to claim 7, wherein theversion of the list includes a skin unique to the particular socialcircle selected by the user to share the tagged content.
 9. The methodaccording to claim 1, further including: receiving a trigger from themobile communication device; and performing an action corresponding tothe trigger, wherein the trigger is a completed voice call or textmessage on the mobile communication device and the action is contentpresentation at end of the voice call or text message.
 10. The methodaccording to claim 1, further including: receiving a trigger from themobile communication device; and performing an action corresponding tothe trigger, wherein the trigger is a completed voice call or textmessage on the mobile communication device and the action is adding anew member in the social circles or creating a new social circle. 11.The method according to claim 1, further including: receiving an eventfrom the first website; and performing an action corresponding to thetrigger, wherein the event is when community event information added orchanged in the social circles and the action is sending correspondingcontent presentation to the mobile communication device.
 12. A contentdelivery system for a user of a mobile communication device having amobile account, comprising: a first server for: establishing a firstwebsite and a relationship between the first website and one or moreservice providers, the service providers providing one or more secondwebsites; establishing a website account for the user on the firstwebsite; and associating the website account of the user with mobileaccount of the mobile communication device, and a second server for:adding content of the second websites tagged by the user when browsingthe second websites to a list associated with the website account on thefirst website; transmitting the list to the mobile communication deviceto be presented to the user; sending an alert to members of one or moresocial circles maintained by the first website where the user's websiteaccount is a member for indicating the tagged content of the secondwebsites to the members of one or more social circles.
 13. The contentdelivery system according to claim 12, wherein the members of one ormore social circles are all members of the one or more social circlesmaintained by the first website where the user's website account is amember.
 14. The content delivery system according to claim 12, whereinthe members of one or more social circles are a subset of member of allmembers of the one or more social circles after being applied with afilter using criteria provided by the user.
 15. The content deliverysystem according to claim 12, wherein: the second server is configuredfor performing an action related to the tagged content of the secondwebsites for a member of the one or more social circles in response tothe alert.
 16. The content delivery system according to claim 15,wherein the tagged content is an object for sale on the second websitesand the action is a purchase of the object for sale on the secondwebsites.
 17. The content delivery system according to claim 15, whereinthe tagged content is a rating of an object for sale on the secondwebsites and the action is a purchase of the object for sale on thesecond websites.
 18. The content delivery system according to claim 12,wherein transmitting the list to the mobile communication device to bepresented to the user further includes: synchronizing a server databasewith an account database on the first website to determine the listassociated with the website account on the first website; generating aversion of the list suitable to be presented on the mobile communicationdevice; and transmitting the suitable version of the list to the mobilecommunication device.
 19. The content delivery system according to claim18, wherein the version of the list includes a skin unique to theparticular social circle selected by the user to share the taggedcontent.
 20. The content delivery system according to claim 12, whereinthe second server is configured for: receiving a trigger from the mobilecommunication device; and performing an action corresponding to thetrigger, wherein: when the trigger is a completed voice call or textmessage on the mobile communication device and the action is contentpresentation at end of the voice call or text message; when the triggeris a completed voice call or text message on the mobile communicationdevice and the action is adding a new member in the social circles orcreating a new social circle; and when the event is when community eventinformation added or changed in the social circles and the action issending corresponding content presentation to the mobile communicationdevice.